In all the research that you did, was there any one thing that you remember watching that was always a revelation for you in playing the role? Maybe even in a tiny way?
Yeah, I mean, there’s so many stories, too many for us to have put in the show, but there were a couple of things in particular, but there’s a small one there where Eriks talks about his mother and how she would lock him in her closet if he didn’t go to school. And sometimes he would be in there all day, and she would put a piece of tape on the outside of the door so that if he got out, she would know that he left, so then she could punish him, and she gave him a Tupperware in the closet for him to go to the bathroom in. And it’s just stuff like that that sort of makes you go like, “Holy s**t, this is just like, how does someone do that?” But then the most impactful one for me was this mirror exercise that he had to do with his dad, and I wish this had made it into the show. I’m so sad that it didn’t, because it’s such an important piece of information that sort of proves why they felt they were in danger that night. But basically, this mirror exercise was after Erik would have to have sex with his dad, he would sit him on his bed with this mirror that was sort of, he describes it as steering a ship, and it was this mirror. And he would hold it, and his dad would pace behind him and ask him questions. “How did you play today in your tournament?” Or whatever. And Erik would answer honestly and be like, “I thought I played well.” “Wrong.” And Erik would have to hit himself on the back of his head or across the face, and then he would ask him again, “How did you play in your tournament today or in your match today?” “Badly.” “Correct.” And then it would be a series of those questions like that, and Erik would learn how to answer correctly. And so the worst question was at the end, which would be “What’s going to happen to you if you tell somebody what’s going on between us?” And the incorrect answer would be, “You’ll hit me” or “You’ll hurt me.” “Wrong,” slap. “What’s going to happen to you if you tell someone what’s going on between us?” “You’ll kill me.” “Correct.” So, he was trained to believe that if he told anybody about this, his dad would kill him. And that exercise, the mere exercise that happened all the time, and from such a young age. So, if you are trained to believe that, you believe that to be true, even if it’s some people have this misbelief, I’m kind of going on…
No, no, it’s good, please.
Some people have this misconception that if you believe the Menendez brothers were telling the truth, then that means that you believe that you think the parents were going to kill them. I never thought that the parents were going to murder their sons. I don’t think that is true. However, I do believe that Erik and Lyle thought that they were going to be killed by their parents. And it’s a tiny shift, but a huge misconception that people get wrong. It’s in their mind. They didn’t have the right mind because they had been manipulated and traumatized, and made to believe that that would happen.
You never know how something’s going to turn out. How nervous were you for the world to watch it for the first time? And when did you realize you all might have created something special here?
I was definitely nervous, but I had watched the show a good number of times before it came out on Netflix. I had seen the sort of rough cuts, and they weren’t really that rough. It was like they were sort of right before the final stage of coloring or sound stuff or any of that stuff. And I was really, really impressed and happy with the show as a whole, not just with myself. I was really proud of my own work. I was like, “O.K., I feel good about it.” I felt like when we were working on it, I mean, the first day felt huge. It was like, “Oh my gosh, this is such a big thing and a huge production.” And then by the end, it felt so small, like this is my family, this is my home. Those sound stages at Sunset Gower. That was my home for six months. I felt so comfortable there, and I felt like we were all sort of doing this thing collectively, and it was ours. And so I think I felt more bittersweet of letting the world into that. It was so personal and private. And sometimes when people recognize me or I get recognized on the street, and they’re like, “Oh, blah, blah.” And I’m like, “Yeah, you’ve seen my soul.” Because that’s the way it felt. I felt like on the set, all of those people, the crew, and everybody had we were opening ourselves up to the deepest, most sensitive parts of ourselves. But I mean, of course, I was nervous. It’s like you have to be ready for what everyone’s going to say. You kind of sign up to hear everybody’s opinions.
I wanted to just go back really quickly to episode five and working with Ari. You are incredible in that episode, but can you just talk about what she has to do in that we never see her face in the entire episode? And how much rehearsal did you do beforehand?
How do I put this? She’s the reason why I was able to do it at all. I think the first two takes, I was so inward, introspective, I wasn’t using her. I made the choice that it would be hard for Erik to look at her and be open to her because it’s so shameful to talk about these things. And then Michael Uppendahl, the director, was like, “The next one, try to be open to her and look at her and let her affect you.” And then when I did that, it opened all of the doors. And because she did such diligent work and studying, when I would look across the table at her, and it was Leslie, it would give me full-body chills. And it’s just because I had studied Leslie so much, too. So, then to see Ari really bring her to life and capture her essence was so moving and powerful. So I really credit a lot of my performance to her performance. And I’ve said this before, but I’m the luckiest person ever that I’m really the only person who got to witness her performance. I got to see her face every time. And so I hold that very, very dear to my heart, and I feel very lucky that I got to witness that so many times.
There’s no secret camera behind you capturing her angle at all.
There was not. But in terms of rehearsal, we only did one rehearsal with the team. It was me, Ari, Michael, Ian Brennan, who wrote the script, and is one of our producers. And I think that was it. Oh, I think Michael had a shadow director with him, but it was just us in that room, and we did one rehearsal. And then before that, Ari and I had done one read-through, not even off book, we just read the script together, very flat, no acting. And then I think the first day of shooting it, I went to her house and we just did again, a cold kind of read, just to get the words out once, and then that was it.
How many times did you shoot it on set?
Eight times fully, and then I think there were two or three stop-and-starts.
They didn’t even do that much in “Adolescence.” That’s a lot. So, props to you.
Well, a different kind of scenario. We only had one episode that was one shot, so I think we had a little bit more time. And also our camera movement, it’s on a machine, it’s like a robot. It was a machine that was doing it, and then obviously someone was sort of controlling the camera head and the angle and sort of where it’s at. So, it wasn’t as complicated. There’s only blocking in the beginning when Ari comes in. And then other than that, we’re just sitting in the same place. So, in that sense, I think we had the luxury of not really needing to rehearse that much with the camera. And Michael, which I was so happy about this too, he really got the camera down with our stand-ins first. He rehearsed with them a bunch for the camera so that when we were ready for us, we kind of just got to sit in, and then we could just kind of go for it, which I was happy about.
Which made sure you weren’t exhausted from having done it 20 million times.
And we split it up over two days. So we did it four times the first day and then four times the second day.
Before I let you go, I know there’s probably only so much you can talk about, but I feel like whoever you’re playing in “Artificial” has not been revealed. And I don’t know if that’s intentional, but can you at least say whether you are playing another real person again? Most of the other actors seem to be. Or are you a composite of someone else?
I don’t think I’m allowed to say.
Alright. That’s fair.
I’ve just been told, been told that I’m not supposed to share any information that isn’t already out there, so I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.
Can you at least say what it’s been like working with Luca?
He’s so sweet and gentle, and he’s so funny. He kind of reminds me of a kid in a candy store. He kind of just is. So, I can tell I’ve only had, I guess, two days on set with him, but I can just tell how much he loves making movies, and he just loves it.. And yeah, he’s so wonderful. I hope the rest of the time will be so fun, and I hope I get to work with him many more times as well.
For all I know, you’re going to be filming in Milan or somewhere in the mountains of Italy, but I do hope, since it’s summer, you get to go to the beach at least once.
Afterwards. After I’m finished, which is the end of August, my partner is going to come and meet me and we’re going to go to Sicily for his birthday.
Oh, freaking awesome.
Yeah. So we’re going to have our own little “White Lotus” adventure. We’re going to download season two of White Lotus so that we can watch it again at night.
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” is available on Netflix.
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Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of the entertainment industry's most respected journalists and critics. Based in Los Angeles, he's the only current awards expert who previously worked on Oscar campaigns at a major movie studio. Over the years, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vox, among others. He also co-founded the entertainment news site HitFix, which spawned a legion of influential Emmy and WGA Award-winning alumni.
